Student Cluster Competition

Trevor Gale

• I’m a computer engineering major. Both my parents were CS majors and I really got into computers thanks to them.
• I’ve never competed in an event like this.
• I’ve built a number of test systems out of left over hardware from Northeastern’s previous SC and ISC endeavors. These setups let me get familiar with configuring and optimizing our software stack.
• I am the system administrator. I got this assignment because of my experience with building distributed computing systems for other projects in our lab.
• Learning to configure an entire network of high performance computers was a little tricky.
• The only easy part was getting the job.
• That’s for me to know, and them to find out!
• The mystery app adds a very cool dynamic to the competition that requires all the students to be very knowledgeable about a broad spectrum of HPC applications
• I want to win to show what Northeastern and all my NUCAR lab colleagues can do.
• I plan on taking a nice week off and eating some turkey.

Tristan Sweeney

• Computer Science & Engineering. I was going to major in bio-engineering, but through my freshman year kept finding myself down the google rabbit-hole reading about programming and such. Eventually I realized it was what I actually wanted to do so I committed officially.
• I've been in Hackathons. While they're not entirely similar, Hackathons are high stakes competitions, and require teamwork and massive amounts of coordination. They're really fun, and go well.
• We're preparing by compiling and running our apps on a test cluster, and learning the in's and out's of our applications.
• I'm in charge of running LINPACK for our team. I got this assignment because I asked for it, and it excited me.
• The most challenging assignment I've faced is resolving hardware dependencies within apps by swapping out libraries. It won't help us with the competition, but it's a good skill to have.
• The easiest part of the competition was getting involved. The hardest part has been the magnitude of learning we need to prepare for it.
• Our cluster is powered by the souls of the dammed, and can smell fear. Be warned.
• I like when mysteries are nice and don't melt super-computing clusters. Our team is trying to diversify our knowledge in to handle the mystery application.
• We want to win to bring prestige to our school, and to show we're a force to be reckoned with. We're willing to work our hardest to succeed.
• After the competition I'm going to go to a spa, get ice-cream, then go back to the super hectic life of being a student in Boston.

Madeline Leger

• I chose to be a computer engineer because I've always been interested in how your computer can interpret arbitray things you tell it to do.
• I've never competed in a cluster competition before.
• I've chosen to work on optimizing the Trinity app, so I've been investigating different options it has.
• I'm optimizing Trinity because I'm really interested in biological applications of software.
• I knew nothing about MPI 2 months ago, but I've kept learning about it and I've been able to apply it to other topics.
• Easiest - figuring out my jacket size. Hardest - improving my programming skills enough to understand what Trinity is doing.
• It's a secret!
• We've been investigating old mystery apps and practicing with those.
• I would love to bring that title to Boston, the best city in the world!
• Buy real cowboy boots from Texas?

Colleen Finnegan

• I am an electrical and computer engineering double major. I picked EE because I knew I loved circuits, but when I went on my first co-op, I saw how much you need software to do hardware well, so I added the CE part on.
• This is my first.
• I am specializing in one application - MILC. I am working to figure out the best compiler optimizations for many different sizes of data set and will continue with dataset optimizations and other configurable options.
• I am working on the MILC application primarily and I got this assignment because I volunteered for it.
• My most challenging assignment has been to learn what MILC actually is. Physics is not my major, so understanding what the application does took a lot of background research.
• The easiest part of preparing has been just getting the code to compile. The hardest part is trying to dedicate a serious amount of time to it while in classes/on co-op.
• It’s a secret!
• I like that mysteries require you to think on your feet and test your skills rather than pure preparation. I am preparing for the mystery application by trying to gain as much knowledge about performance and optimizations as I can.
• I want to win to show that a young team can win. I am willing to and will be going with little sleep and a lot of work from now till November.
• I am going to keep working on my academics and hopefully return to MITRE for my third and final co-op.

Carter McCardwell

• I am a computer engineering major. I always found the marriage between hardware and software very interesting, which is what made me choose it versus Computer Science or Electrical Engineering.
• This is my first event like this.
• We are dedicating people to each application, which allows for extreme focus and the time to learn our application in greater detail. Browsing the source and reading papers on optimization techniques is how I have prepared thus so far.
• I am in charge of the WRF component for the competition. I found the algorithm very interesting and volunteered to explore it further.
• The easiest part was choosing the program that I wanted to work on. The most challenging part was building and optimizing said algorithm. WRF is so enormously complex and intricate that it has taken a long time to learn how it works and avenues in which it can be tailored to run on our hardware.
• They won’t know our setup until we show up.
• Knowledge is power: Therefore we are learning in depth several solutions that will aid us in dealing with the mystery application.
• I want to win to show the capabilities of Northeastern and more specifically our group NUCAR.
• I'm going to Disney World!

Spencer Hance

• Since I first took a computer class in elementary school, I have been deeply interested in computers. When applying to college I realized I really enjoyed working with hardware as well as software. Computer Engineering seemed like the best fit for both passions.
• This is the first HPC event I have ever competed in. However, I have competed with a team in a hackathon. That event taught me a great deal about working under pressure and a tight time constraint.
• For this competition I am focusing on the Repast HPC application. I am spending a few hours each work reading the documentation and finding ways to optimize its execution.
• My primary role is optimizing the execution of Zombie Repast. I picked this application primarily due to its interesting name. I am a big fan of zombie movies and thought it would be the most fun to work on.
• The most challenging assignment so far has analyzing HPC Repast. It is a fairly large framework and there are a great deal of ways to use it.
• The easiest part about the competition has been using the Allinea profiling tools. Although using them for the first time was difficult, they have been very helpful in finding the slowest parts of the applications.
• It’s a secret!
• To prepare for the mystery application we are learning as much as we can about potential programs. We have extensively researched commonly used applications and studying them up until the competition.
• I want to win so I can successfully represent Northeastern University and their ECE department. I believe we have the means to prepare our students very well and I hope to show this at the competition. I am willing to spend many sleepless night and my free time in order to achieve this.
• After the competition I will continue on my schedule of classes and hopefully apply the knowledge I have learned in future jobs and coops.